The testing of limits, the pushing of boundaries and the breaking of rules can happen in many ways. It can be impulsive, inadvertent or intentional.

We've seen a lot of it lately, sparking a range of reactions and consequences. A reckless, though revealing, crack from Roseanne Barr swiftly provoked offence. Her crass tweet, insulting an African American woman who had been an advisor to former president Barack Obama, led to the cancellation of her successful sitcom, put a couple of hundred people out of work and reignited the debate about Trump supporters and racism. The response to Barr's transgression was a resounding slap-down: such behaviour from a person with power and profile in the entertainment business would not be tolerated.

Meanwhile, across the Pacific, the acceptance of a reported $150,000 as payment for an interview with a commercial TV network by former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and Vikki Campion, the mother of his baby boy, ignited a debate about what is appropriate behaviour for a member of parliament.

Joyce has been a pillar of conservatism, a politician who's proudly represented traditional family values and the battlers of rural Australia. So the breakdown of his marriage and news of his affair was like catnip to a hungry media and its avid audience. After being subjected to months of intense and sometimes invasive media scrutiny, the couple decided that if you can't beat 'em, you can at least profit from them.

Wherever you sit on the question of the propriety of Joyce selling his story to Seven's Sunday Night, the resulting interview provided a wider perspective, allowing us to see the human beings behind the headlines. Campion was tearful and apologetic for hurt caused to others. Joyce was protective of her, at times bullish and insistent on boundaries about discussions relating to his wife, while maintaining his rage about some of his colleagues. They were two people, now besotted parents, who fell in love at work, which, Campion observed, happens all the time. But in their case, the ramifications were not just damaging personally and politically, but also played out publicly.